Marcy Ross Send Message

My daughter got me this tea for my birthday (she’s five months old—apparently this is the one she reached for, which is fortunate, because it’s one of the ones that interested me most). I tried it today, and was astounded by how delicious it was. It’s complex, malty, earthy, woodsy, and vegetative, and slightly astringent (but not too much, and it’s not very bitter at all). I had it plain, and my wife had it with milk. I tried a sip of hers, and the milk didn’t change the flavor too much. While Twinings is my go-to for early morning tea, this is one that I’ll definitely have on mornings when I don’t have to wake up hours before dawn. Fantastic!

I’m a barista at Starbucks (a tea lover in a coffee world), and decided today to try our matcha with hot water, since I find it entirely too sweet in lattes and frappuccinos. Sadly, the sweetness comes from the powder itself. I’ve never had matcha before, so I don’t feel qualified to rate it yet, but it was not my cup of tea, so to speak. I got some vegetative notes, but these were drowned out by the taste of sugar (and a slight fish flavor, as well; kind of like kipper or sardines). Not something I would have again.

Finished it off this morning. Not the greatest loose-leaf; I much preferred their English Breakfast. The leaves are cut very fine—many of them were essentially fannings—and the bergamot flavor was inconsistent (strange, since it was made with bergamot oil, not actual bergamot, so it wasn’t as if I hadn’t been scooping enough bergamot). Often it would be too weak or too strong; nothing some milk and sugar didn’t fix, of course. A decent tea overall, but not one that I’d get again.

My wife and I each had a cup of this tisane today as we watched the snow fall. We added honey and milk, and it was perfect. The sweetness and earthiness work together very well to create a balanced cup.

Although I’ve started to get into loose-leaf teas and quality full-leaf sachets from places that also do loose leaf, I realized that preparing even a sachet takes too much time for the mornings when I work early (which means waking up at 3:30 am). When I’m up that early, I need a quick, strong cup of tea that doesn’t take too long to prepare (I estimate that I steep the bag for two minutes, but I don’t keep very close track with this one). I add some milk and sugar to make a sort of builder’s tea that I can drink quickly. I turned to Twinings, remembering it from my childhood, and haven’t been disappointed. It gets strong quickly, and the taste is robust enough to handle the milk and sugar well and wake me up.